Brilliance in the night tugs at the back of my mind.

Well, we should not say brilliance exactly. Perhaps, awareness of stupidity would be more appropriate.

For all intents and purposes, after dozens of edits by me and three edits by two very intelligent, english oriented people, including a sixth grade teacher, I sent out my query, etc to my first agent.

Did you ever go back and have this sinking feeling? Darn, how did that get into the first page? I found a grammar error in the query and a book error in the first page of the book. What??? Do gremlins come in the night and change your words??? How did that get there?

I decided I better go through one more read, yet again, for errors. Then, in the middle of the night I woke up with the realization that I had to change my ending.

I've had this nagging thought that I was doing a "Oh and then the magic fairy whipped in and solved the problem." It was not exactly the major plot but it should have been.

So, now I shall go through, one more time out of a zillion, and do several things: make a definitive list of curriculum references, check for those gremlin errors, and make sure that my plot is resolved by my protagonist and not by any pesky fairies.

But first, I'm going to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving, with turkey or with vegetables. It's the friendship that counts.

Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)

Getting into my new way of eating. I've gone Vegan folks. Boys ate grilled cheese and tomato soup tonight. This is not going to be easy.

So, I have gone to my distraction, ta da, the net and found a great article by Mark Ury on using music to set the tone of your writing. Writing for Kids (While Raising Them). This is one of those "Duh!" moments.

I have used music in creating my art for years. When I sculpt a humorous animal, it's Lyle Lovett or Jalan Crossland. If I'm throwing on the wheel, it might be a country song or some hard core classical. As the sun is setting and I'm winding down, on goes the jazz and blues. So, why not bring that to my writing.

I have a major battle, t the end of my book series, and my mind is already wrapping around the problem of getting into the right mood for it. I've been writing in quiet or to CNN (it's on a lot). But, in four or five years, it's going to be something like Vagner or Wagner or Verdi.

In the meantime, I'm working on book two, MOON TREE MADNESS, and need to find some Charlie Chaplin movies for humor.

So, check out Tara Lazar's site for PiBoldMo and quit melting that cheese. Gosh, it smells good!!

PiBoldMo

I have updated my new 2010 PiBoldMo button on the side and done an "Enclosures" link for you. Hopefully, that will work. I used to be able to put links in here but the "Link" button did not work so well yesterday.

Last year, was my first year with PiBoldMo and I loved it. Granted, I only finished about half the month and something came up, but I have high hopes for this year. I still came away with a bunch of great ideas, gleaned from all the guest bloggers Tara welcomes in November.

So, if you are short of ideas, join up and get inspired.

Query day and Madness

Now that the manuscript for Moon Tree Brothers is complete, revised, edited and it's logline is done, it is time to work on my Query letter.

First, never think your logline is done. None of these submission documents are ever "done". They are just complete until you look up the next agent and see what they like and then you can emphasis the things in your novel that "the current submitting to agent" likes.

I think that makes it a bit easier to write them. It's like having an assignment in school and knowing that the teacher is really fond of (gosh, all I can think of here is chocolate), well that would work if chocolate is in your book, so okay, you emphasis the chocolate instead of the spaghetti this time around. But, you still need an original really good synopsis, query, etc to work from.

Late last night I came up with a good way to do it. Well, I didn't http://marcussakey.com/articles_querygoround.php did. Sorry it's not linking right, just Google Marcus Sakey. One of my book loves is mystery and I have turned to Marcus Sakey to figure out this Query in simple terms. "Just the facts, Ma'am."

Summing up your newly finished beloved baby in 3-5 lines is not easy. He says to "focus on the drama and the stakes and leave out the minor characters"...themes/complications. Check out his article if this is not clear enough for you. It seemed clear at 2am. But, I am tired now, from being up that late so nothing is seemingly clear.

The point of the Query, he says, "Just show them you know how to tell a story." Now, that is simple. I have also seen it described as sitting down to tell your manuscript as a short bedtime story. After all, that is what we are selling: We are great storytellers!

That said, I love Madness. Book two , Moon Tree Madness, is going well. I may have mentioned it already but I had this great idea for a character based on Dawn French. She just seems to flow from my fingers. I usually "cast" my characters early on. Even if it is a photo from a magazine of someone I have no idea who they are, I seem to see something in their face that makes them come alive for me.

So, I'm off to finish my basic query, so that I can get back to Madness. Have a great day.

It's one of those Senior moment days

Since I cannot seem to remember how to answer a comment, I'll do it here. I am troubleshooting my website with my site owner. The site refuses my updates. So, I probably would not have gotten around to posting anyway.

But, YES, I am doing PiBoldMo. Check my links for this great Picture book idea think tank. While I have to admit I got involved and did not finish it last year, I have about half a month of great ideas for Picture and other books from last years contest.

I heartily recommend it.

QueryTracker's logline help

One last mention about your, or my, logline.

QueryTracker,net is having a contest and, while I thought my logline was "all that it could be," (unlike my punctuation) I checked out querytracker'nets article on loglines and improved it further. It's a great article and I suggest you check it out.

Great Link for creating your LogLine

I found the perfect help for me on creating a logline (one line synopsis) and I have read everything I could find. But, today, this one just hit my brain when it was ready to receive it.

This is by Christopher Lockhart and you gotta love his title "I wrote a 120 page script but can't write a logline."

I really was not quite getting what is wanted in the logline, but he explained it in great detail.

First, he says not to muddy the waters with the characters name. But, you use those precious words to describe your character. Such as saying, "An angry woman..." DUH! That means so much more than Alice Smith shot her husband. Although, once you knew she shot him, you probably figured she was angry.

Then, your logline must present:

"WHO the story is about (that's the angry woman)
WHAT she/he strives for (Their goal- having dead husband)
WHAT stands in her/his way (not much apparently)."

But, keep reading because he does a great job of explaining and there's a hysterical example of a logline for the Wizard of Oz there.

He also explains a bit how writing has changed in the last twenty years. How many times have you watched an old movie and thought, "Gosh, that is slow. I used to like it."? Is that punctuation even close to right?

Anyway, very interesting article.

I have joined the age of technology

I AM ON HIGH SPEED!!!!

Excuse me for yelling, but it's so exciting. We tried it out for a month, with Verizon's USB port WiFi and it works.

That little USB port thing-a-ma-bob has become the most sought after item in our house. My custody is days, JCountry gets it earlier evening, like 3pm, and JediKnight gets it after work, which can be as late as midnight. So, it gets hung on doorknobs around the house (Not meaning, do not enter) meaning, "I'm done. Your turn."

I can see a movie clip and even look at all the forwarded junk certain relatives send out. If I want.

So, hopefully, I will become a regular blogger here again. Although, I picked up another watcher in my absence so I really think there may be a thing to this being paid not to blog.

My current status is a headache from rewarding my logline/one-line pitch. I have decided that I will never get it right and maybe, just maybe there is really NOT one perfect logline for your work.

I'm thinking that perhaps, as you would do with the Query, you need to slant it a bit to take advantage of the things you want to emphasis for each agent you query. What do you think?

While these submitting things are endlessly worked on, I have started on book 2 of the Moon Tree series and I am so excited. I don't try for a lot of humor, but this book seems to be bringing it out. I am introducing a new teacher and I just keep seeing Dawn French. Now, how can you not laugh when Dawn French is around? The first chapters have written themselves and are now making me work on chapter 3.

But, I have high speed, so ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!

Except getting the darn woodpeckers to stop chipping away at the house.

Outlining vs Writing by discovery

One of the blogs I follows is Miss Snark's First Victim.
AT: http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/ .
Apparently, she received some advice that her book would be better if she did a detailed outline first. Puul-Leaseeee! I appreciated her response, which was to tell her what is wrong with her book but do not tell her how she has to write it.

When I began Moon Tree Brother, I tried to force myself to outline. I tried graphs, index cards, organizational charts, standing on my head (not really, that would not be a pretty - or safe- sight). But, I tried.

What I discovered was that it did not work for me. What works for me is writing by discovery. I start to do research on one thing and bump into something that I just have to include in the book. It may not make the final cut, as my beloved Roma (gypsy) scene did not make it, but it keeps me going.

My manuscript for book one, Moon Tree Brothers, is winging it's way back home from my personal editor, my beautiful sixth grade teacher daughter, as I write. I cannot wait to get onto my final edit before sending it out. In the meantime, I am working on book two.

With a working title of Moon Tree Madness, I am having a blast. Things are getting crazy in the Moon Tree and I only slightly hyperventilate that I have no idea where this will end before I remember that I had no idea where book one would end for a very long time. It actually has had two different endings. This is a lot better than the twenty-seven different openings it has had.

The thing is, we each have our own process. I do not think my book would work near as well if I tried to force it into an outline I did before I had discovered all the wonderful things that happened along the way.

More power to you, if you outline. It's all about what works for you.

When the world is just a little off.

First, my favorite blogger, http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/, just disappeared one day. Everyone deserves a day or two off but she was gone fifteen days. She reappeared yesterday with pictures of knotted yarn. I've had knotted yarn. I totally understand. I'm happy she is back, but that makes me wonder if we owe it to our "followers" to let them know we are in deed alive.

Which, of course, brings me to the fact that I disappeared for, well a long time, and I gained yet another follower. I do think this disappearing is good for my blog but since I am really, honestly and truthfully in the home stretch with my manuscript, I need to get busy on this blog again.

The only thing between me and an agent now is Meijers. Yes, Meijers, as in the big store like WalMart only classier and less noisy. That's just my opinion since I am irritated at all the price roll-ups at my local walmart and Meijers is thirty miles away.

Anyway, sixth grade teacher/daughter has completed her edit of my manuscript. She tells me that only one chapter is really redlined and that she has put it in her car so she will not forget to mail it at Meijer's, next time she goes. Hmmm, mail it at Meijers?

I talked to my 88 year-old mother yesterday and she reminded me not to travel today and tomorrow as we will be hit with rain and wind from this huge hurricane that is hitting the Gulf. (insert long pause here.) All I can figure is she fell asleep during a show about Katrina, woke up to see the forecast for Katrina and fell back to sleep. She's all battened down though and waiting and since we live in central Indiana, she's got a pretty long wait.

ATandT keeps trying to sell me high speed but then telling me they don't offer it in my area. Mean joke? Did you know you are not allowed to blog an ampersand?

Our son tells us he is engaged via Facebook. Ok, to be fair, he is in the Army, in Germany, and in the field, so he cannot use his phone, but he could Facebook it.

On the plus side, I keep reading that Middle Grade and Young Adult Fantasy is still hot, so as soon as Meijer's ships my manuscript to me, I'll get at it and, in the meantime. I will do my best to post more often and untanble my yarn on my own time.

The "What if" moment

Your characters need an environment and my big "what if" led to the discovery of Astronaut Stuart Roosa.

In 1971, Roosa went into orbit on Apollo 14. Since he had been a Forest Service smoke jumper, he decided that his personal kit would include hundreds of tree seeds.

Four to five hundred seeds from the Douglas Fir, Sweetgum, Loblolly Pine, Sycamore, and Sweetgum trees were included. He and his seeds stayed in the Kitty Hawk command module as it orbited the moon as other astraonauts stepped on the moon.

During decontamination the containers burst and the seeds were mixed together. Fortunately, nearly all the seeds germinated and the Forest Service had over four hundred trees to plant.

1975 and 1976 saw the trees sent to their future homes. The White House lawn, Brazil, Switzerland and even the Emperor of Japan received trees. Valley Forge, NASA, Koch Girl Scout Camp in Indiana, Goaddard Space Flight Center in Maryland were among states to receive trees.

You can read more about it here: The Moon Trees

Twenty years later, you can not tell a non-orbit tree from one that has orbited the moon, but WHAT IF???

What if those trees were imbued with special powers from their time in orbit and became the home of a world of creatures bent on saving the world?

What's your WHAT IF?

I'm BACKKKKKKKK!!! and finding my voice!

And, I am hoping that this is a condition that continues. Absolutely no guarantees in this world where it took me two computers and twenty minutes to get on-line yesterday.

I have finally made friends with my Inspiron. Yes, I did have to restore it to factory settings twice and am holding my breath the external modem keeps working.

I am slowly making friends with my new eyes too. I should say "lens'" as that is really all that is new, after cataract surgery. My left eye seems better and I am adjusted to reading blurred until I can get a script for reading glasses.

Now, to the fun things in life. I am excited about my book again. I have two great editors now. The new one, who is reading it as a brand new reader of the book, is excited about it and has given me some good input. She's as full of ideas as my first editor is. I like to have a reader who is picking the book up blind, with no idea where it is coming from or even what my writing style is. She has never read anything by me before and is looking at it with a clean eye, so to speak. (Yes, I am obssessing on this eye thing a wee bit.)

Both editors have helped me find my voice and say what I want to say in a new and unique way. I had a pottery teacher like that in Casper, Wyoming. He could see through what I was trying to do, right to what I really wanted and needed to do, and lead me in that way.

I had set myself a deadline of March 1st, to get the book out, but it is so much better now and it needs to be "all it can be." Hmmmm, what made me think of that?

Oh, yeah, my grandson/son is graduating from basic training the first of April and we are going to sunny Oklahoma for the ceremony. He phoned today and told me it was 70 degrees one day and they woke up, on their camping trip, to five below, an ice storm and rain. So, how do you pack for that?

I am not actually all that excited about driving thirteen hours but am anxious to give him a hug. The motel has high speed, so I can let let you know what the weather is.

I also need to thank a very special grandson for the funding for this trip.

Why do I need internet when I can't see to read it?

Wow! I don't write for over a month and I gain three followers. Would you guys consider paying me not to write?

My status is about the same. I am online on my old Sony Vaio desktop and my new Dell Inspiron 1545, with external modem, sits at my writing desk unable to go online. AOL neither can help nor care about the situation. The second tech who helped me was most apologetic about not being able to help. The third tech was totally delusional. They ignored my protests that the machine was still unable to connect to AOL and congratulated themselves on a successful session.

My IT nephew tried to help but, I believe we have now figured out it is neither my external modem nor my AOL dial up. I'm rooting for Windows 7 at this time and ready to kick myself for not just installing Windows XP. Remember good old XP? That's the last Windows OS that actually worked. Oh, how I long for the good old days.

I also long for my old eyes. My cataract surgery is complete. Yes, I have 20/20 in my right eye and I can see forever and to the moon with it. The left eye? Not so much. It's barely 20/80 now and I am wearing +300 (I think it is, since I can't see) reading glasses and must sit 8 1/2" from the computer screen. This is difficult when the Inspiron laptop is like 10" wide. The ophthalmologist tells me that it is caused by my lazy left eye. I also understand that complete recovery can take two to four months. I'm not sure I buy that, the lazy eye excuse, but what's done is done. I had my cry just thinking about not being able to paint again, but have moved on now.

I am currently looking for the silver lining in all this.

External modems and internal vision

I feel guilty being even the slightest unhappy with my world, when I have water, food, a roof over my head, and medical care (at least until March 31st). But, it is the only way to let you know I have not abandoned my blog, it has just been a bit hard to get to lately.

You would think that you could plug in a new computer and be good to go, alas, NO!

My faithful Gateway tablet gave up its ghost. I am obsessive about back ups and also got a few hours advanced warning that things were not right, so i did not lose my book or anything, however, my new Dell Inspiron 1545 came complete with OUT a modem.

Okay, you look through the list of stuff you are getting and you notice what they are giving you but nowhere did it say, at least in noticeable letters, you do NOT get an internal modem. I then ordered one and got online quite fine until I went to my Master's Daughter for Christmas and enjoyed WiFi, came home and my Internet would not work.

Yes, I am still on AOL dial-up. It stinks, but it is all I have, so i checked the setting and I was indeed trying to go on dial-up, with my external modem and then I spent an hour, on the phone with Dell. We did so much changing that I could not possibly write down each step just in case and sure enough, just in case happened the next time I went to the library on DSL. And, it did.

So, I am currently on a very old Windows XP desktop, on dial up. Some days I can get on, some days I cannot. I am working on the laptop again but my eyes are complicating all of it.

This is also not the month to fight anything having to do with reading as I am having cataract surgery and, while I now have 20/20 vision in my right eye (a new one for me) I am really struggling to read. Believe me, had I known and if this was elective surgery, I would not have done it. I would rather wear glasses and be able to read easily. But, since cataracts have to go, I did not have a choice.

I am sincerely hoping that tomorrow, after the left eye is done, that things will eventually even out or whatever, at the very least I will get reading glasses, and life will be back to normal; well, as normal as my life ever gets, once i get my laptop working on line.

My new Dell and I are cohabitating.

When the Gateway broke, I was devastated. Since the clips on the swivel screen had broken a year earlier, I was not too surprised but I loved that machine. Then, I used grandson's Gateway with VISTA. Not a good match but I found out that if you force yourself to use it, you can make peace.

My new Dell has Windows 7. We are in discovery mode with each other. I have figured out how to stop my thumb from setting off weird windows. I have also discovered that they make computers without modems now. Yeah, you out there in the boondocks, no modem! Who would have thunk???

It took me about forty minutes on their help phone to get my new external modem to actually work, but here I am back online. Now, the problem is my webpage. It works but I have these HTML errors and I am just not sure how critical that is. I do have several pages left to go.

We spent several days, of the holidays, with my Master's daughter and, guess what? Yep, her computer broke down too but was still under warranty. The bad thing, for me (not for her), was that she lost all her notes on my book. I guess that is for her too as she has promised to go over it again. She is only working three jobs right now, so what the heck???

Hope you all had a good holiday.